In Adinjo there are four genders: inanimate or neutral, masculine,
feminine, and dual. This post will talk about the pronouns they use, but
modern Adinjo does has a
Inanimate/Neutral
1. yi /ji/
2. çi /tʃi/
3. xi /xi/
This set of pronouns does not assume or specify a gender, so it is
appropriate for use when discussing person you don't know the gender of or,
most commonly, abstract references. Most concept words in Adinjo are
neutral gender even if they refer to a concept with a gender -- however
they can become gendered when they refer to an instance instead of the
abstract concept.
Masculine
1. yen /jen/
2. çen /tʃen/
3. ji or jen /ʒi/ or /ʒen/
This sets the stage: the gendered forms share the same consonant root as
their neutral forms, but in 3rd person, the use of a general gendered
concept (ji) is considered formal and explicit gendering (jen) is
considered informal or intimate.
Feminine
1. yai /jai/
2. çai /tʃai/
3. shi or shai /ʃi/ or /ʃai/
Dual
1. yunai /ju: nai/
2. çunai /tʃu: nai/
3. lai or lunai /lai/ or /lu: nai/
The dual is traditionally used for mixed groups and hermaphroditic or
intersex individuals, however it has been adopted as the most common
pronoun for individuals who identify outside of the gender binary.
Yunai is a rare term, as gendering the first person pronoun is usually seen
to emphasize gender, and dual genders within Adin culture are often more
comfortable downplaying their personal gender when discussing themself.
This is a version of the broad cultural stigma against gendering the first
person pronoun.
Çunai is a more common term, or or at least its plural form çunain is. This
allows a group to be addressed with any mixture of genders, and is
sometimes seen as the respectful term for any group you are addressing,
even if it only contains one gender. "Anen çunain," is a specific phrase
used to address persons of all genders, much as a public speaker might call
"Ladies and gentlemen," in modern English.
Lai is the basic concept of a dual-gendered individual, while lunai allows
you to refer to a specific dual-gendered individual. They are derived
backwards from the traditional words lain and lunain which refer to groups
of more than one gender. They are also derived from the word "larn" meaning
*two*, which is why they are caleld *dual gender* even though they refer to
any multiple or non-binary gender in modern use.
On Sun, Apr 22, 2018 at 3:47 PM, Jörg Rhiemeier <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Hallo conlangers!
>
> On 16/04/2018 16:48, A Walker Scott wrote:
>
> > Pronouns in my languages tend to be rather boring, but three of my
> > languages do at least a few odd things. I'll take them chronologically.
> >
> > Lrahran has a couple of odd things. There is a first person SINGULAR
> > exclusive--the I which is not I. It's something of a philosophical
> concept,
> > but gets heavy use on those days when you don't feel like yourself, or
> when
> > you do something really stupid and out of character. But it can also be
> > used in cases of DID/MPD. The other is the "fourth person" which is "you
> as
> > representative of a group." It's used when complaining to the tech on the
> > phone (who is not the one you spoke to either of the last two times) "You
> > need to get your act together. You give me a different answer every time
> I
> > call," or "You didn't tell me this would break the first time I used it."
> >
> > Gravgaln does not distinguish person in its pronouns. Instead, caste is
> > distinguished.
> >
> > Qttg pronouns are gendered for all three sexes (even in first person),
> and
> > they exist as bound roots, requiring them to be joined to another
> pronoun.
> > So I-he, or he-you or I-I are possible, as subject-object combinations,
> but
> > just I or you or she alone are not.
>
> The Old Albic pronouns are less exotic. As usual, there are three
> persons; there are also three numbers: singular, dual and plural. Also,
> each person has its own kind of distinction that does not occur in the
> other persons: in the first person, there is an inclusive/exclusive
> distinction in the dual and plural, with the exclusive forms being the
> regular dual and plural of the 1st person singular, and the inclusive
> forms based on a separate root. In the second person, there are familiar
> and polite pronouns, while the third person distinguishes four genders:
> masculine, feminine, common and inanimate. The three animate genders are
> distinct only in the singular.
>
> The pronouns are thus in their agentive case (except inanimate, which is
> in the objective case):
>
> 1st person:
> exclusive sg. ma, du. mu, pl. mi
> inclusive du. vu, pl. vi
>
> 2nd person:
> familiar sg. tha, du. thu, pl. thi
> polite sg. la, du. lu, pl. li
>
> 3rd person:
> masculine sg. so
> feminine sg. se
> common sg. sa, du. su, pl. si
> inanimate sg. tath, du. tothum, pl. tethim
>
> They decline the same way as nouns.
>
> --
> ... brought to you by the Weeping Elf
> http://www.joerg-rhiemeier.de/Conlang/index.html
> "Bêsel asa Éam, a Éam atha cvanthal a cvanth atha Éamal." - SiM 1:1
>